IDF jails soldiers for photo of cigarette in mouth of Virgin Mary statue in Lebanon
Soldier seen in picture given 3 weeks, photographer given 2 weeks; army says it 'respects freedom of religion' after several incidents involving soldiers in Christian village Debel
The Israel Defense Forces on Monday sentenced two soldiers to jail for placing a cigarette in the mouth of a statue of the Virgin Mary in Debel, a Christian village in southern Lebanon, a picture of which was shared widely online last week and condemned by the military.
The soldier seen in the picture was given three weeks in military jail, the IDF said. The soldier who took the photograph was sentenced to two weeks.
The military said that the incident was investigated by the commander of the 162nd Division, Brig. Gen. Sagiv Dahan — the officer in charge of the relevant area of southern Lebanon at the time — and he was the one who decided to give the soldiers jail time.
The IDF “views the incident gravely, and respects freedom of religion and worship, as well as holy sites and religious symbols of all religions and communities,” it added. “Procedures regarding conduct toward religious institutions and religious symbols are routinely clarified to forces before entering the relevant areas.”
An initial inquiry conducted by the IDF found that the photo was taken in the village of Debel several weeks ago, although it was only shared online last week.
The incident joined several other occurrences in which footage was published of Israeli soldiers — including by the troops themselves — destroying or looting property. Debel was the village where a soldier smashed a statue of Jesus last month, as well as the place where soldiers were seen in footage showing military excavators damaging solar panels.
The two soldiers involved in vandalizing the statue were taken off combat duty and punished, while the incident with the solar panels is under investigation.
Debel, like several other Christian communities in southern Lebanon, had not been ordered by Israel to evacuate amid the fighting against Hezbollah.
The terror group began fighting Israel on March 2, days after the outbreak of the US-Israeli war with Iran, drawing heavy Israeli airstrikes and an expanded IDF ground presence in Lebanon. A ceasefire in that conflict that began in mid-April has largely unraveled.
Despite Israel’s protestations that it values relations with the Christian world, recent months have seen a string of embarrassing scandals and attacks on Christians that have strained Israel’s relations with Christian communities and highlighted a lack of clear policy.